Tips on Getting Fit and Working Out

Just Say NO To Plateaus! Cardio Edition

2008-05-03T08:53:00.000-07:00

A fitness plateau is when your same old routine isn't showing results anymore. Or worse you're losing hard earned work by gaining weight or losing muscle. This happens because we are creatures of routine and habit. In addition to that, we don't like to be uncomfortable or hurt ourselves. Humans are beings of pleasure, not pain.

So we tend to go too easy on ourselves.

We see results because our body wants to be able to handle the work load we put it through. It improves to match the demand. When we adjust and get comfortable to a work out, the routine no longer shocks the body in to having to improve and adapt to the challenge.

Our bodies want us to be comfortable, but we can't let that happen.

When preforming cardio you need to surprise your body by changing the workouts time, intensity and type of equipment used.

Whether you do cardio twice a week or six, I find this cardio program to be highly effective.

Day 1- Easy Cardio Pick a level that you are positive you can do for more than 30 minutes. Aim for 30-45 minutes at a steady pace. This work out style improves endurance.

Day 2- Hard Cardio Vigorous effort for at least 15-20 minutes. If you can maintain the intensity for longer, go for it. The idea of this style is to strengthen your heart's ability to preform a tougher intensity and to burn as much calories, in as little time possible.

Day 3- Interval Training This particular work out is great because you can change the combinations every time. Start with 1 minutes intense, 3 minutes easy then you can move on to 2 minutes intense, 2 easy or change it up entirely to 30 secs hard, 30 secs easy. There are hundreds of interval workouts. The idea of doing intervals is to train your heart to recover faster. This is also the BEST method to burn calories and lose weight.

Rotate this three day plan no matter how often you're working out and you will never plateau again.

Happy Training!

Kaleena Lawless

Personal Training Specialist

http://www.kalisthenixfitnessblog.com

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How to Get Moving, Keep Fit, and Remain Motivated

2008-05-03T08:39:00.000-07:00

By Kevin Sinclair

The hardest part of getting into good shape and staying there is motivation. Our inspiration to stay in shape changes with the seasons. We have holidays to consider, cold winter days, and all of those gadgets of convenience which keep us from maintaining a daily routine or exercise. However, we really should be wise about the way inactivity affects our bodies and our health.

Diabetes, heart disease, and strokes are just a few of the medical conditions which can arise from idleness. But there is good news! Recent research has shown without any doubt that these affects can be stopped or reversed simply by switching from a sedentary lifestyle to a more active one. Exercise on its own, without making any particular change in your diet can reduce the risks of the diseases previously mentioned so by doing whatever you can to increase your motivation has to be of benefit to you. You could try listening to music whilst taking a run, or find some form of exercise which you like and enjoy doing and set aside a particular time of day to do these activities. This will help you to keep motivated. By creating a pattern for your exercise your body will soon become used to it.

Your mind has the ability to create ideas which lead to positive actions and such actions can help you to lead a strong, happy and healthy life. Just talking positive to yourself can work wonders for your motivation levels and even looking at recent improvements for example, a slimmer waist line, will keep you going. Self encouragement has to be the ultimate motivation and you will have no-one to thank except yourself.

If you want to change your body shape, fitness motivation is essential and this will require you to create a fitness motivation plan. For men, goal setting and presenting challenges works best and a change of scenery and some fresh air may be the key to get you motivated. Remind yourself of the rewards you will reap if you continue especially at times when you feel like giving up. Not only will you be more confident and possess self esteem but you will also rid yourself of anxiety, stress and depression.

Sometimes just the idea of a better sexual performance is enough to keep the motivation in place. Set yourself realistic goals because if they are too difficult you will soon feel defeated and be tempted to give in. When you achieve an appropriate goal you will get such a boost and feeling of satisfaction, this in itself creates even more motivation.

Vary your exercise routine, make it fun to do and if you want to ensure you keep up the exercising ask someone to go along with you. This is a sure way of you sticking to the routine you have set.

If you do not know much about fitness in general you could always consider hiring a personal trainer, a professional who knows what he or she is doing. Your trainer will customize a routine just for you and concentrate on the areas which need working on in order to maximize the results you achieve. Of course, before laying out the money to employ a personal trainer, you need to be committed to really going for it. Check out some fitness blogs on the internet - there are new ones added more or less daily and most make for good reading.

Remember to make your exercise regime as interesting as possible. Set achievable goals, adds things to make your training more enjoyable such as challenges or ask someone to go along with you. These are all ways of staying motivated. Get moving, keep fit and remain motivated. What are you waiting for?

Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of My-Personal-Growth.com, a site that provides information and articles for self improvement and personal growth and development.

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Keeping Up The Workout Motivation

2008-04-15T19:43:00.000-07:00

Time and time again we’ll start working out with good intentions to keep it up and then after the first few days we quit. Sometimes it is because we are so sore those first few days that we can’t keep it up. For me it is when I miss day or two and can’t get back into the routine.

Here are a few tips to keep up the motivation that have helped me towards my fitness goals.

1) Set a specific time of day to do your workouts. I find that committing to doing it at the same time each day I am more likely to get it done. I prefer mornings prior to work. If I miss my morning workout it’s a lot harder to do it when I get home. I think I’ll do it when I get home from work, then I push it off to after dinner, and then after my favorite show and before I know it it’s time for bed.

2) It doesn't have to be a 60 to 90 minute workout, just 20 to 30 minutes each day and you will feel the results. Fitting a 60 to 90 minute workout is just not an option for me with my current schedule. It may be for some, but I know that after working out for 30 minutes a day consistently for a week I can totally feel the difference. They biggest key is to keep it up.

3) Plan your workouts and stick to the schedule. I make myself a workout calendar and list the specific workout that I plan to do each day. Plus, it keeps me motivated to cross off that I did what I had planned on doing that day.

4) Find a workout buddy. For several months I used to go to a gym each morning to meet my sister. We rarely missed any days because if she was going to be there I needed to be and vise versa. If you do your workouts at home you can still have a workout buddy to keep you accountable. Join a forum or commit with a friend who is doing the same.

5) Don’t overdo it right up front. If you work out so hard that you literally can’t walk for days then you’re not going to keep it up. Soreness is normal and after a few days to a week it will pass, but if you do so much that you are in serious pain you have done too much. It’s not likely that your going to get up and do another workout.

6) Last, keep it up. If you only have time for 15 minutes, workout for 15 minutes, if you have time for 30, do 30. If you miss a day or two, jump back into in on day three. If you consistently work out 4 to 5 days a week you will feel the difference and see results.

A couple other things I like to do to keep me motivated is to keep out one of my favorite outfits that I'm working towards fitting into. Every few weeks I pull out my boxes of "skinny" clothes to see what I can get into. I also like to find magazine pictures of people working out and in shape to hang up in my bedroom or bathroom to keep me motivated. You just need to find what works best for you.

For more information and tips on working out and slimming down visit my website at: http://www.aerobics.infomyworld.com Over 40 articles on aerobics, tips and secrets to weight loss, motivation and much more.

Top 3 Tips For Great Cardio Workouts by Doug Jackson

2008-04-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today I'm going to share with you my three top tips for having great cardio workouts. Being someone who gets bored out of my mind doing traditional cardio, as well as a trainer who deals with cardio exercise issues everyday with clients, I have a unique perspective on this.

1) Find something you enjoy! Many people find cardio cumbersome. My personal philosophy is that we won't stick with something for the long term if we don't enjoy it, so find something you enjoy! Don't get too caught up in all the dogma about 'do this', 'don't do that', 'this is better than that'. Just get moving and have fun!With cardio, consistency is key so the majority of the time, focus on exercises that you enjoy. To keep that heart working effectively, you need to get your heart rate up substantially for a continuous amount of time at least every 48 hours.

2) Mix it up! As the old saying goes, 'familiarity breeds contempt' so try some things you're not familiar with. This is good for both psychological and physiological reasons. It gives you a mental break from the same old thing. Plus, doing a different activity or the same activity in a different way will be an effective stimulus for new levels of fitness and help you avoid overuse injuries. Something I like to do is to hit three different forms of cardio in the same session. For a traditional, medium intensity, thirty-minute cardio workout, I might do 10 minutes on the treadmill, followed by 10 minutes on the elliptical, finishing with 10 minutes on a stationary rower.

3) Listen to motivating music! "Rising up, back on the street. Did my time, took my chances. Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet. Just a man and his will to survive." Yes, the old Eye of the Tiger from the Rocky movies is my personal favorite. Make a CD, or for you technologically-savvy out there, use an I-Pod, put together a play list of your favorite workout songs. Music can make or break workouts.

Lastly, remember the last couple of ideas that I teach my clients. Assuming a well-balanced diet, the following points seem to be accurate for my clients:

-For weight management and slight decreases in body fat and increases in muscle mass, aim for at least three days of exercise per week for approximately one hour. I like to see people use the first thirty minutes for strength training and the second thirty minutes for cardio. Also aim for about a total of at least 1,000 calories expended through exercise per week for weight management, health benefits, and stress relief purposes.

-For significant fat loss, people are best served by aiming for six days of exercise per week with a total caloric expenditure of at least 2,000 calories per week. In this scenario, there is some flexibility in program design which is dependant on the forms of exercise a client prefers. If someone really enjoys cardio and doesn't enjoy strength training, I may have them strength train 2-3 times per week, and perform cardio six days per week. The style of cardio may be staggered. Here is a typical program layout for someone with a goal of significant fat loss who is committed to working out six days per week:

Day 1) strength training (30-45 minutes) + 15 minutes of cardio interval training

Day 2) bike (45 minutes/ medium intensity)

Day 3) strength training (30-45 minutes) + 15 minutes of cardio interval training

Day 4) walk (60 minutes/ low intensity)

Day 5) strength training (30-45 minutes) + 15 minutes of cardio interval training

Day 6) elliptical machine (45 minutes/ medium intensity)

Day 7) off

To make this information work for you, ask yourself the following questions:

1) Have I been getting my heart rate up for a consistent time period, every 48 hours or so? Remember, "use it or lose it". The heart muscle actually weakens when we are inactive for more than a couple days. Maybe the image of a slowly atrophying heart will get you moving.

2) Have I been performing effective cardio workouts or have I just been going through the motions? If my workouts have not been up to snuff, what can I do TODAY to make sure my next workout is more effective?

3) Have I worked out in the last couple days? Will I be working out in the next couple days?
Hint: If the answer is no, stop reading this right now, and go do something! Do some pushups, jumping jacks, bodyweight squats, yoga, I don't care! Just do something!

Doug Jackson, M.Ed.,CSCS has a track record of results in the fitness industry. The Author of Fitness Now and Forever http://www.FitnessNowandForever.com and co-author of Family Fit Plan http://www.FamilyFitPlan.com he has a real-world experience and research background which leads the personal training field. He operates his personal training business, Personal Fitness Advantage http://www.PersonalFitnessAdvantage.com in Sunrise, Florida and serves exceptional clients in Broward and Dade counties.
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The Best Fat Burning Aerobic Exercises by Frederick Deglande

2008-04-15T19:22:00.000-07:00

Aerobic or cardio exercises are necessary for your personal fat loss programme. They are successful if you combine them with proper nutrition, weight lifting and nutrition. However most people don't have a clue how to do them correctly. Let's face it its very annoying to spend your time on something that doesn't work. In this article you learn the correct way to burn body fat trough cardio exercises.

Why cardio for fat loss

When you want to lose body fat you have to create a calorie deficit. Creating a calorie deficit can happens in two ways. Decrease your calorie intake from food or increasing the amount of calories you burn trough exercises. It's not smart to starve the fat with low calorie diets, instead do exercises to burn the fat and feed the muscle with good nutrition. Almost all of the popular weight loss programmes fail because an extreme decrease in calorie intake slows down the metabolism. An increase in activity speeds up your metabolism. By doing regular cardio exercises and eating more often you get a double boost in your metabolic rate.

The best aerobic exercises to do

Aerobic means with oxygen and for fat to be burned oxygen must be used. When it comes to effective fat loss forget about tennis, basketball or golf. These exercises will help may help you a little bit but in the first place they are for recreation. Basically for aerobic exercises we can distinguish three major types. Low, moderate and high intensity. Doing moderate or high intensity workouts is better than low intensity workouts. The higher the intensity of the aerobic exercises are, the more calories you will burn. Another advantage of high intensity workouts is that they raises your metabolic rate to a higher level of the workout then exercises with a low intensity.

Duration of aerobic exercises

How long should your cardio workouts be? By doing cardio vascular exercises you can achieve some health benefits such as decreased blood pressure, decreased blood cholesterol or increased aerobic capacity. This can be achieved in a period between twelve and twenty minutes. But if you stop after that period of time you won't burn enough calories to get impact on fat loss. Therefore it is important to do aerobic exercises for at least thirty minutes with a maximum of sixty minutes per session.

Weight lifting

The real key to lose fat is to combine weight lifting with aerobic exercises. If you do too much cardio you can lose muscle although this does not happen occasionally. Weigh lifting helps you to build muscles and the more muscles you have the faster your metabolism works and the more stubborn body fat you will burn.

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Best Sports and Exercise Options for Weight Loss by Robin Brain

2008-04-15T18:54:00.000-07:00

It's all well and good for me to say you should exercise more. But what should you do? How should you do it? Where and when and how often? Those are the questions this article will answer. Choosing the right exercise means developing a balanced weekly activity routine that suits your lifestyle, circumstances, preferences, and abilities.

The right exercise for you

Putting more activity into your life is a matter of talking it a step at a time. It's unrealistic and unsafe to expect to go from couch potato to weekend warrior in a day, a week, or even a month. If you start off with something that is beyond your level of fitness, the chances are great that will become discouraged and stop.

The wong way I have a friend who was a cross-country runner in high school. In the intervening 40 years, he's shifted his extracurricular activity to reading gourmet cookbooks and eating the results of his research. Every once in a while, he decides he really should get some exercise, so he laces up his running shoes and runs for a mile. He comes home panting and sweating, lamenting that a mile just seems a lot longer than it used to. And that's the end of running until the next time. . . a month or more down the road. What he is doing is both foolish and dangerous. But you know that.

The right way Another friend of mine had done little exercise for years when she decided she was looking pudgy and feeling lowenergy. She joined a gym and started going to beginner-level exercise classes twice a week. On the days she did not take a class, she used the treadmill at 2 mph for 30 minutes and then did a training-machine circuit, using the lowest possible weights.
She told me that at first there were exercises she simply could not do. Double crunches, for example, put an impossible strain on her back. And there were others she could do, but not for as many reps as the instructor counted out. But she hung in there, doing as much as she could.
To her amazement and delight, she found she was gradually able to do more. As her abdominal muscles got stronger, so did her back. Double crunches were possible, though she still could not do as many as other people in the class. She increased her speed on the treadmill, getting up to 3 mph at a slight incline. She increased the weights on the training machines. Before long, she stopped feeling like the newest kid on the block. She did it the right way, and the results were obvious.

How fit are you? (revisited)

Take out your weight-loss notebook and turn to the part of your personal database that you filled out while doing the selfassessment in Chapter How fit are you. Review your answers to the lifestyle activity quiz. If anything has changed, revise it.

If it's been a while since you filled out this section, take the strength, endurance, and flexibility yardstick tests again, and enter any changes into your database. If you took one of the online fitness tests, you might want to do it again, and enter any changes in your database.
The entries you now have in your personal database are what experts call your baseline, where you were when you began. As you become more active, you will be able to measure yourself against this baseline and see how much your fitness level has improved.

Your fitness level will improve as you begin to exercise more.

What seems to be just too hard may become just hard enough. And in time, what's enough will seem easy.

Read out for Swimming to lose weight. Check out BMR Calculator and 1000 calorie diet plans.
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